Yes, Hitchcock thinks Drake is Hall of Famer

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The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees were playing on July 11 and Fox Sports was showing the game. Analyst Harold Reynolds went on at some length about how he was convinced that the Red Sox, to that point having an abysmal season, were about to get it together and have a good season. Except that he didn’t mention that Clay Buchholz, their best starting pitcher, had been injured the previous night. . . . I thought then that Reynolds was a poor analyst who talked far too much. . . . He did nothing to change my mind with his inane comment on Sunday. If you missed it, with the Toronto Blue Jays in Texas playing the Rangers, he incited a nation of baseball fans by saying: “Not a lot of people grew up playing baseball in Canada . . . you’re not used to catching a lot of balls in the stands.” . . . Remember, too, that it was Reynolds who, in reference to major leaguers Salvador Perez and Pablo Sandoval, both of whom are from Venezuela, said: “You’ve got to be swinging if you’re coming off the island.” . . . BTW, the Red Sox didn’t have a good season. . . .

Wouldn’t you like to have been with Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock when he found out that general manager Brendan Shanahan, in a suit and street shoes, was on the ice giving pointers at the end of practice the other day? . . . Last week, Jed York, the owner of the San Francisco 49ers, tweeted: “I have a few tickets left for the game Sunday. Let me know if you can make it. #FaithfulFanTix” . . . Jake Echanove, a 49ers fan, tweeted this response: “I can’t give my tickets away either, Jed.” . . . If you are wondering why former U of Alberta hockey coach Clare Drake isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame, you aren’t alone. Here’s St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock: “John Wooden is in the Hall of Fame. This guy is John Wooden. Figure it out." . . .

“Sepp Blatter will reportedly be suspended for 90 days by FIFA’s ethics committee,” notes Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe. “Shocking. FIFA HAS an ethics committee?” . . . A note from RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com: “According to the crew on TSN, ‘everyone in Canada’ has Blue Jays fever. Which prompted my wife to ask: ‘Who are the Blue Jays?’ ” . . . “Anyone else McFed up with the McAdvertisements and endless McReplays of every McMove by Connor McDavid?” asks Currie. “And that’s before his first NHL McGoal.” . . .

“First, the Blue Jays have Taylor Swift in concert in town prior to the playoffs and now they're on the Sports Illustrated cover,” writes Bill Littlejohn, our correspondent in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. “Cubs GM Theo Epstein asked if they want to trade curses.” . . . “Russian President Vladimir Putin scored seven goals in his 63rd birthday hockey game,” Littlejohn reports. “Meanwhile, Vegas is posting odds on whose body his head is superimposed upon in the photo.” . . . Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post noted that Putin’s effort “was a fine demonstration of Putin the biscuit in the basket.” . . .

There is a bar in Chicago that is frequented by White Sox fans, which is why it’s offering up free beer whenever the St. Louis Cardinals homer against the Cubs in the NLDS. As Hamilton put it: “White Sox fans are disappointed their team missed the playoffs, so the bar’s offer is good for what ales them.” . . . “Filmmaker Spike Lee will be grand marshal of the upcoming New York City Marathon,” writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “Which certainly makes you wish Reggie Miller was running in it.” . . . A report from Perry: “The U.S. Postal Service says it lost $586 million in the most recent quarter. Or maybe not: $500 million of that is riding on the Cubs to win the World Series.” . . .

You may have seen him on TV last week. His name is Will Smith and he was in a seat along the third-base line at Yankee Stadium. He failed in two attempts at catching foul balls and also gassed an underhanded toss from a ball boy. Smith had an excuse, as he told the New York Daily News: “(The ball boy) didn’t do me any favors because it was a short throw, and after half a dozen beers at a baseball game, you’re not working your best.” . . . At least Smith was able to grab that third ball off the warning track, so he went home with one souvenir. . . . Headline at fark.com: Yankees fan finally gets his answer to ‘Why was I picked last every time in gym class?’ . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: Sepp Blatter forced to give all bribe money to charity during 90-day FIFA suspension. . . .

Rob Manfred, the MLB commissioner, met with gamblin’ Pete Rose the other day. According to Richmond, B.C., blogger TC Chong: “Neither party would reveal what was discussed, but an unnamed source claims they agreed the Toronto Blue Jays are 3-2 favourites to win the World Series.” . . . One more from Chong: “The federal election is upcoming and I don’t like any of the candidates in my riding. May I write in Donald Trump?” . . .

Here’s Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald, with his take on the three most-heated rivalries in baseball: “Red Sox-Yankees. Giants-Dodgers. Nationals-Nationals.” . . . The start of an obituary that appeared in a New Jersey paper this week: “Devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, and lifelong Yankees fan Helen (Emanuel) Fowler, 85, passed away on Sept. 29, 2015, at the Chelsea in Fanwood, N.J. Mrs. Fowler was a former member of the Cranford First Aid Squad and a lifelong Yankees fan, with the exception of Alex Rodriguez.”

(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at greggdrinnan@gmail.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears here on weekends, except when it doesn’t.)